photo by: Shawn Valverde

Haskell Indian Nations University is pictured on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024.

Multiple Federal legislators from Kansas officially introduced a bill that would remove control of Haskell Indian Nations University from the federal government and let the university govern itself while still providing federal funding.

U.S. Senators Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; Roger Marshall, R-Kan. and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., and U.S. Representatives Tracey Mann (KS-01) and Derek Schmidt (KS-02) introduced the “Haskell Indian Nations University Improvement Act” Monday. The legislation would transfer governance of the university — which serves only members of federally recognized Native American tribes — from the Bureau of Indian Education, which is part of the larger U.S. Department of Interior, to the Haskell Board of Regents to run the school.

As the Journal-World reported, Sen. Moran and Rep. Mann released an initial draft of the legislation in December. The legislators began soliciting feedback from the Native American, Lawrence and higher education communities to craft legislation to “effectively address issues at Haskell and best serve students and staff.”

Over the past few years, the university has been rocked by allegations of misconduct, with an 80-page report publicly released in April 2024 that resulted from the BIE’s investigation into the alleged misconduct which claimed the institution was “severely dysfunctional and severely lacking processes and procedures,” as the Journal-World reported.

Additionally, 40 of the university’s employees were fired back in February due to orders from the Trump Administration to cut the federal work force, as the Journal-World reported. The employees were eventually ordered to be rehired by a U.S. District Court order in March, as the Journal-World reported.

In a statement, Sen. Moran said Haskell has been “neglected and mismanaged” by the BIE, including failing to protect its students, respond to congressional inquiries and meet basic infrastructure needs. Moran said the best path forward for the university is “to be led by an independent Board of Regents … and no longer obstructed by the BIE.”

Rep. Mann, who represents Lawrence, which is now part of Kansas’ 1st Congressional District, believes the school should be a “crown jewel” for Native American education but has been “mismanaged” by the federal government. He believes making the school independent can serve as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to protect Haskell’s rich heritage and culture.

“Today begins a new chapter that empowers Haskell to thrive and serve tribal communities in the way it was always meant to serve,” Mann said in a statement.

The proposed legislation would establish a Board of Trustees “to establish the policies and internal organization.” The board would include 16 members – 15 voting members and one non-voting member — and be appointed by the U.S. President.

The members would be made up of one tribal member from each of the 12 geographic regions of the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. The draft legislation calls for at least one of those appointments to be from an Indian tribe of Kansas. Kansas tribes include the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, the Kickapoo Tribe of Kansas, the Sac and Fox Nation, and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. Additionally, the 15-member board must have at least one member who is a member of the Haskell alumni association. The student body president of Haskell also would be a nonvoting member of the board.

The Board of Regents has a memorandum of understanding with the BIE and the university itself, in which the Regents’ role is “to reflect the opinions and needs of our Tribal governments” and to support Indigenous educational philosophies for the students. Dalton Henry, the President of the National Haskell Board of Regents, said the challenges from federal oversight have limited the potential of the school, and the new legislation could better guide the school’s future.

“This is how we secure Haskell’s legacy, not just for today’s students, but for the next seven generations,” Henry said in a statement.

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The legislation also calls on appropriating $21 million from the federal government to the university each fiscal year. The legislation would also set up an initial $5 million federal contribution to an endowment fund that would benefit Haskell, and it would allow Haskell to be able to apply for any federal grant that is available to any other university in the U.S.

Other details include:

• Establishing Haskell as a “federally chartered educational institution,” allowing it to have the tax status of a charitable organization and accept private donations.

• Requiring the U.S. Department of Interior to transfer all ownership of Haskell’s 320-acre campus to the university. The university, however, would not have the ability to sell any of that property, and it could only be used for activities directly related to the mission of the university.

• Requiring that Lawrence be maintained as the general location of the university, although the regents would have the authority to create branches or additional locations.

• Shifting the employment status for Haskell employees from being civil servant positions in the federal government to employees of the school itself. All university employees, however, would be eligible for federal benefits. The university would be required to make payments in the federal health and retirement programs, the same as other federal agencies. The university, for purposes of law, would be treated as a federal agency.